Being in the Wall St Journal
A personal bucket list item for me: my advice in the Wall St Journal. Humbling and crazy, but maybe not such bad advice. Happy Mother’s Day!
When I say “working mother,” what image pops into your head? It’s probably not a joyful one. It’s probably a stressed out, barely holding it together mom on the run. Close your eyes and you can see her, sprinting and muttering to herself. It’s a cultural image that runs deep.
But when you are a leader you must set the tone for your work. You are the model. This perception cascades down to your team, your clients, your partner and your children.
Blooming Boomer Blogosphere
I’ve had an amazing time working with AARP and getting to know the incredible women who are reshaping the blogosphere. In a recent piece for the Harvard Business Review I explore the word beyond mommybloggers:
“We buy stuff too.” That’s the rallying cry I’ve heard from widely read female bloggers over age 49, who are frustrated that a well-established cadre of younger women with young children — known as “mommybloggers” — garner extensive promotional contracts with major brand advertisers, while Boomer-aged women online are often ignored.
What marketers seem to be missing is that Boomer women are actually outspending younger generations online — and not on the products that might come to mind when you picture the 50+ set. Boomers averaged $650 spent online vs. Gen X at $581 and Gen Y at $429, according to Forrester Research. They are buying beauty products, electronics, experiences, vacations, and health products.
To make sense of the confluence of disposable income and increasing online time among this generation and what it means for marketers, I’ve drawn on my own experience and the rise of the mommyblogger.
Lean In Can Make Me Depressed
The incredibly polarized reaction to Sandberg’s book points to our society’s intense confusion about exactly what women are for (remember Election 2012?), and the intense chaos working families feel about coping in an always on world where parents spend more time with their children than ever before, but also work longer hours than ever before. As my friend Sarah Granger says, “The modern family needs a wide range of solutions in order to survive and thrive in our high-speed, fragmented society. The majority of mothers work part-time. Why isn’t the conversation becoming more collaborative about how we make the shift and why our culture needs to adapt to improve options for everyone – women and men?”
Young men and women are in the middle of a huge shift in gender roles. Mine is not the first generation in which women work and make meaningful contributions in the workplace. But I do believe today’s twenty- and thirtysomethings are the first in which a woman staying home is an aberration, not viewed as a the most normal option.
But our society is still so conflicted about this new normal, and I think we are, too, personally and in our relationships.
Continue reading at wearewomenonline.com….
Social Media for Social Good: #GivingTuesday Results
#GivingTuesday was November 27-read all about this amazing day in Morra’s piece in the Harvard Business Review:
#GivingTuesday had its share of cynics. They objected mostly to two things: First, as a social media marketing campaign, it risked being a PR stunt that did very little for increasing charitable donations or actions. Second, that staging a national day of giving would “cannibalize” traditional end of year giving. I can only address the first point here, as the second remains to be seen.
Take the fundraising firm Blackbaud, which processed $10 million in online donations on inaugural #GivingTuesday — a massive 53% increase when compared to the Tuesday after Thanksgiving the previous year. Or #GivingTuesday partner Panthera, whose VP Andrea Heydlauff reports ”We received over 450 individual donations, amounting to just over $300,000… So far over 40% are new donors. This has surpassed all of our expectations on so many levels and is truly a memorable and perhaps the most significant event in our fundraising history.”
Thank you Joanne Wilson
Joanne is a heroine of mine. So when she interviewed me for her blog Gotham Gal, I was floored. It’s a highly personal piece, tracking my weird and winding career path.
Joanne taught me a HUGE lesson. She helped me reframe my career, in one sentence. I always thought because I had 10 jobs before I was 30 I was a quitter. Joanne said, “You’re a start up person!” Bam- reframed. Love it.
And Joanne also helped me realize the debt I owe to my parents, both always self-employed, both with a strong focus on work-life. Thank you Joanne, and thank you Mom and Dad!!!
Like her father, Morra hated to going to the office but she had to. She did not want to be working on someone elses terms. She is an expert on womens issues and that feels great. Morra is changing the workplace for women from the outside not the inside and getting companies to hire her to do it. I am a big believer in change from the outside and that is one of the many reasons I am Morra fan from NYC.
About Me
Morra Aarons-Mele is the founder of digital marketing agency Women Online, and its online marketing network The Mission list Read her full bio >>
Recent Posts
- Being in the Wall St Journal
- Blooming Boomer Blogosphere
- What’s been left out of the Lean In Discussion: Caregiving
- Women and Negotiating: Helpful Tactics
- Lean In Can Make Me Depressed
Categories
#blogforobama
